After hearing Luo Zhang's words, everyone's eyes suddenly widened, and then they all looked at Liu Renyuan with unconvinced expressions on their faces.
Especially Liu Rengui and Sun Renshi did not agree with Luo Zhang's words. They felt that if they also had an elite navy, they could defeat the Japanese ships.
Seemingly sensing something strange among them, Luo Zhang smiled slightly and said, "What? Are you not convinced that I say this? Do you think you are all better than Liu Renyuan?"
"Let me tell you, Liu Renyuan's soldiers are not much stronger than you at the beginning. Most of them can't swim. Many of them can't stand even when they get on the boat. Vomiting is common!"
"But what was the final result? They persisted and mastered various skills on the ship very skillfully."
"And what about you? When I first set up a military camp for training, I wanted the navy, not the warriors who went into battle to kill the enemy. If I hadn't told you, would you have changed? Would you have taken the soldiers into the water to practice?"
"Don't think about useless things. Just focus on the training of the soldiers. Think about how to improve the water quality of the soldiers and the speed of operation on the ship. You know, sometimes if you operate a little faster, you You can take the first shot, and taking the first shot can sometimes mean the difference between life and death!"
"So, don't be dissatisfied when I praise Liu Renyuan. When will you be able to train an army that can rival Liu Renyuan's navy, then I will admire you and personally appeal to His Majesty for your appointment!" Luo Zhang said with mixed reviews. Everyone, the purpose is also to encourage these people to work harder. As mentioned just now, the time for the Northern Expedition is getting closer and closer, and there is not much time left for him. He has more things to do and has to speed up. .
Everyone accepted the order and vowed to train a group of soldiers more refined than Liu Renyuan.
Luo Zhang didn't say much about this. He just talked and didn't practice tricks. Everything depends on the results.
After talking about this matter, things became much more relaxed below. Everyone came together to discuss who to promote, who would be in what position, etc.!
The blank edict given by His Majesty to Luo Zhang can only reach the rank of captain. Any higher level must be reviewed by the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Personnel, and it is not a matter of His Majesty's words!
But even a first-level school captain is already very good. Most of the school captains are from the sixth rank, and there are also those with titles who are full sixth rank.
A sixth-grade official is comparable to a county magistrate in the local area. To reach this level, even if it takes more than ten years to pass the qualifications, you are still lucky and will be promoted normally. If you are unlucky, you may not even reach the sixth grade in your life. If not, you can see His Majesty’s preferential treatment!
Of course, all the people who were promoted to official positions this time were those who followed Liu Renyuan and performed well in the south.
As for the new recruits in the camp, there is no such treatment. After all, how can they be promoted before they have made any achievements?
Liu Rengui and others had already been promoted to deputy capital guards by Luo Zhang. It was a big leap from the fifth-grade official position. The school captain naturally had nothing to do with them!
The personnel and official positions have been discussed, and Liu Rengui and the others are not willing to stay longer. They are working hard to train their own team and take them to the sea to fight with the enemy to see if they can surpass Liu Renyuan.
Of course, the recruitment was not delayed. Liu Rengui trained the new soldiers, and Sun Renshi and Du Shuang took charge of the task of recruiting new soldiers.
As the saying goes, money makes things easier. In order to recruit enough soldiers, Luo Zhang spent four million taels of silver. Of course, all of this money could not be given to the recruited soldiers, but included the recruits' armor, uniforms, and boots. , bedding and other expenses, including settling-in expenses of course!
With so much money, coupled with the influence of the Monument to the Heroes of the Tang Dynasty, recruiting new soldiers is not a problem at all. I am afraid that it will not be long before they can recruit 6,000 troops, making the total number of the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty exceed 10,000.
By then, the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty will truly take shape!
Chang'an, Changsun Mansion, Changsun Wuji felt happy when he learned that Luo Zhang had actually built a monument to heroes. Just when he wanted to find Luo Zhang's excuse to get the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty, Luo Zhang sent Gave him a great opportunity.
However, before Changsun Wuji could attack, he received an imperial edict. The content of the imperial edict made Changsun Wuji furious.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty! Why do you treat this common man so favorably? Isn't it because he knows the location of Penglai Island? Don't worry, I will definitely get the location of Penglai Island before you, go to Penglai Island, and get immortality. Medicine, what will you, Li Shimin, think about when the time comes!!!"
This imperial edict not only hindered Changsun Wuji's opportunity to seize Luo Zhang's Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty, but also put an end to Changsun Wuji's thoughts.
It's not that he doesn't want to fight for it, but that the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty is now a hot potato, and no one will want it even if it is given to others.
Why?
Nowadays, whoever takes over the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty is equivalent to taking over the responsibility of providing pensions for all the fallen soldiers of the Tang Dynasty. You don’t need to calculate it carefully to know that this is a large amount of money, and even their eldest grandson’s family may not be able to bear it.
It is equivalent to saying that even if you get the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty, it will not be beneficial, but it will be harmful. How can this not make Changsun Wuji get angry and curse His Majesty!
Little did Luo Zhang know that his unintentional move helped him fend off Changsun Wuji's counterattack, and even made Changsun Wuji give up the idea of seizing the Royal Navy of the Tang Dynasty.
After arranging the manpower issue, Luo Zhang went to the shipyard. It was impossible not to go. There were thirty-eight warships in existence. If the army were to expand to six thousand men, these thirty-eight ships would not be enough.
According to the normal ratio, each offshore ship is equipped with 250 personnel. Thirty-eight ships plus Liu Renyuan's three ships should be enough. However, Luo Zhang does not think so. He wants to form a In the fleet, not every ship must be equipped with weapons, but must be used as a cargo ship. In this case, the cargo ship cannot have so many personnel. A maximum of seventy or eighty people can be used to control the ship.
Only to escort cargo ships, warships equipped with weapons will be equipped with about 300 people. Calculated in this way, offshore ships are definitely not enough.
After you know that he has signed contracts with so many big families, and the goods that small merchants have requested to be transported, the daily volume of goods transported is probably staggering.
Luo Zhang calculated that for every six warships, each with 250 men, and ten cargo ships, this is the most ideal ratio. Whether it encounters Japanese warships or Gaogouli warships, They are not afraid of escorting warships and can effectively organize counterattacks and even defeat them.
Some people want to ask why Liu Renyuan's warships can bring so many people south. This is also a helpless move. Only three ships were built before, and the monsoon going south disappeared in an instant. We can't wait any longer, so we can only build three ships. The ship is going south, but the general cannot be left behind when going south. Naturally, it is necessary to bring as many people as possible in order to train a group of real navy. Can soldiers who have not experienced wind and waves be called a navy? So 2,000 people were loaded into three offshore ships.
Fortunately, the offshore ships are large enough, and it is no problem to carry hundreds of people aboard, otherwise Luo Zhang would really have a headache.
Luo Zhang's purpose in coming to the shipyard is to ask Mr. Ma and others to step up the construction of offshore ships. Once the personnel are recruited, they will be trained. We can't let the new recruits take turns uploading training.
Seeing Luo Zhang's arrival, Mr. Ma naturally welcomed him warmly. But when he heard Luo Zhang asked him to speed up building offshore ships, Mr. Ma's face was as bitter as a bitter gourd. There was nothing they could do. They had tried their best, almost day and night. Only in this way can we build thirty-eight offshore ships. This is the assembly technology provided by Luo Zhang. Otherwise, it would be a big deal to build up to ten ships at the normal speed.
The current problem is not that they are not building fast enough, but that they do not have enough materials for assembly. After all, the materials have to be collected from trees and made of parts, one by one, before they can be finally assembled into an offshore ship.
But how could these parts be made so quickly? This simply made Mr. Ma scratch his head.
Luo Zhang didn't have any good ideas for this. After all, this was the Tang Dynasty. It was pretty good that the productivity could reach the current level. He could only tell Mr. Ma to build them as quickly as possible. As for the large sea ships, he would put them aside for the time being. Anyway, Don't rush.
Mr. Ma could only agree with Luo Zhang's suggestion, put down the details of large sea ships first, and focus on building offshore ships first.
